Arrogant Americans are getting their comeuppance

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Indian deputy consul-general in New York City was handcuffed, was strip-searched, was cavity-searched, and had DNA swaps taken by U.S. authorities. Now the Indian government is retaliating against the U.S.:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 546955.cms

Well I'm sure this whole thing was a misunderstanding. No one has yet established the facts of the case, and in any case, I would think trying a diplomat is a challenging proposition. The proper thing to do would be to pressure India strongly to recall this diplomat, and save both nations the whole big mess.

I wouldn't say this arrest is politically motivated, though. The U.S. needs a strong India in the region, and it would be against our interests to piss India off. Given there is a Chinese wall between the State Department and the DoJ, though, I see how such misunderstandings can arise.

Sounds like the diplomat was a bit "arrogant" with her hired help, and preferred that her domestic servants exist outside of US law, so that they could be paid in spare change, as befits the lower castes.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/ ... NC20131217

I read elsewhere it was a cultural misunderstanding. The diplomat on top of that pay was providing free room and board in NYC to her domestic help. One can argue that the domestic help's effective pay was likely hire than the minimum wage, if you took the free room and board in NYC into account.

Wow. It really sounds serious. I wonder what will the state of affairs be when the dust settles down.

When the dust settles, India will still be a third-world country, losing as many of its best and brightest minds to American interests, and watching its women get sold into 'marriage' and gang-raped in factories and on public transportation.

Americans, at least, still have reason to be arrogant ...

Good on India.

For all intents and purposes, India is a hyper developed country. On one extremity it has gold plated palaces, chrome skyscrapers and space launches, on the other it has disease, and expansive slumtowns.

India's problem isn't poverty, its disparity. Too much of its wealth is in too few hands. As one of the tiger economies, given thirty years India will be in the same place as the major European countries are now.

On the contrary, America is on a terminal decline to mediocrity, so it has no reason to be arrogant. America may even have to approach India with a begging bowl, when its credit with China goes bad. They already owe the Chinese something in the region of $17 trillion, which it stands to default on. So yeah, they should probably be careful how they treat Indian ambassadors.

What is the fascination among police with cavity searches? In my opinion you should only do that in extreme cases since it's such a violation of someone's body.

The rectum is a popular storage device among drug smugglers.

Although it does display a certain lack of mutual respect if the Americans believe that Indian dignitaries are filling condoms full of cocaine or amphetamines and stuffing it up their arses.

It's legal torture, used to retaliate for a suspect's failure to cooperate. If she was poor and unknown, they would have just beaten the crap out of her.

...probably would have also done the cavity search.

Perhaps American border guards just have some sort of fetish for latex gloves and stuffing their hands up people's poopers.

It would be quite interesting to see what would ensue if they encountered someone that was audibly receptive to being penetrated in such a way.

There are many incidents of wealthy south asians getting in trouble in the USA for keeping domestic servants in deplorable conditions. But whatever the circumstances, the execution of a "full cavity search" on a diplomat is fundamentally unjustifiable.

??? What reason?? Was she suspected of hiding other workers??

If I gave a worker room and board, it would be considered taxable income to them.

At the worst it would be a Civil matter, and a bond equal to the disputed wages.

So kick the nanny out, tell her to find her own place in New York, and eat, on $9.75 an hour?

Also, who paid her airfare, bought her clothes, took care of her medical and dental, filed her taxes, and other expenses?

I hate feeling like the world thinks that the NYPD represents America. They principally consist of a gang of lawless thugs who only protect the interests of the 1%, poor people who take on the job of suppressing other poor people by whatever means necessary. Anyone within the ranks who stands up to those in charge gets silenced, as in the case of Adrian Schoolcraft, an officer who opposed their illegal quota system and was subsequently persecuted by the NYPD. More here: http://c-spanvideo.org/program/NYP

its unfair to say that the behaviour of american police represents the cross section of American society, but i find it increasingly difficult to believe there is no correlation between this sort of police brutality and the over-arching pro-authoritarian zeitgeist spearheaded by the GOP and anti Obama lobby that continue to back the right wing agenda.